Experts discuss Latino vote, impact on Texas

US House of Representatives candidate Joaquin Castro is seen during his election night reception, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, at Henry's Puffy Tacos in San Antonio.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/Conexion

John Quiñones. File photo

Photo By File photo/SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS

Nina Perales

With a rapidly growing Latino population in Texas, experts are split on whether the heavily courted electorate will help turn the red state blue and if partisanship matters above participation.

Assembled in a packed ballroom of the Hyatt Regency on Saturday, panelists debated the impact of the Latino vote in the November election and the future of the voting demographic.

Congressman-elect Joaquín Castro predicted the Republican-led state would see a Democratic voting majority in eight to 12 years.

“I just wanted to throw cold water on everything you have all said,” responded Nina Perales, vice president of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Perales warned that if Latinos in Texas do not mobilize to increase voter registration and turnout, there will be no such change.

Perales continued to underscore the bottom line: “We're losing ground,” she said. “We have more U.S. citizen Latinos turning 18 every day than are getting registered. The gap between eligible and registered in the Latino community is widening, not narrowing.”

John Quiñones, co-anchor of ABC newsmagazine “Primetime,” moderated the discussion titled “The Latino Vote: How Did It Count?”

“Everyone was talking after the elections — the power of the Hispanic vote and how it was so instrumental in immigration and how the GOP messed up by taking the Hispanic vote for granted,” Quiñones said.

He recalled watching national news coverage of the recent elections and noticing that non-Latinos were telling the Latino story.

“They could have reached out to any of us,” he said and motioned to the panel.

As Quiñones illustrated, panelist Lydia Camarillo emphasized the need for more Latino voices on the subject.

A vast majority of the national Latino vote went for President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election, spurring further discussion in Texas about the influence of Latino voters.

Camarillo suggested that cultivating a powerful Latino electorate could take 25 years or more.

She argued that though Latinos are key for Texas to become a left-leaning state, as Castro predicted, ultimately, “there aren't enough Mexicans” who vote to overcome the Republican vote unless other minorities join in.

For the Latino vote to be effective, the panel agreed, more eligible Latinos must register to vote.

Improved registration and turnout will help dispel misconceptions about the issues that are important to Latino voters, Manzano said.

She noted misconceptions that Latinos only care about immigration or only care about the economy. “We are very capable people. We can care about both,” she said.

“They seem to get lost in the discussion about what matters to Latino voters, as if it were a choice between the two,” she said.

The conference drew more than 150 professional and student journalists, and local and national leaders, on the subjects of diversity, border affairs and the media industry. The daylong conference included topics from covering the drug war in Mexico and the impact of social media on the media to the health of Texas and the future of Spanish-language television.